


Fly on the Wall

by ciaconnaa



Series: Drop in the Bucket [2]
Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-10
Updated: 2016-10-10
Packaged: 2018-08-21 17:50:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8254876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ciaconnaa/pseuds/ciaconnaa
Summary: in which Judy helps Nick redecorate and gets a glimpse of just what kind of neighbor he is.





	

_“Hey, are you near a hardware store?”_

Judy stops pushing her cart through the grocery store to plug her spare headphones in the phone jack and listen to Nick’s call in private. She shoves her phone in her pocket before she reaches over and grabs a box of her favorite cereal and continues down the aisle. It takes her a moment to remember where the nearest hardware store is. “Uh…yeah,” she finally decides, stopping momentarily to see if they have Nick’s favorite sugary cereal—they have the chocolate crisps but not the cinnamon ones, so no good. “There’s one on the end of Mane Street, right?”

_“Look at you—I’ll make you a city girl yet. Anyway, can you pick up some things for me?”_

His voice has a suspiciously gracious tone to it. “Define _some.”_

_“Tiles.”_

“How _many,_ Nick.”

_“Enough to retile my bathroom.”_

Relief and dread overwhelm her immediately. Relief, because the magenta tiles he currently has are a crime against anything decent and nice-looking. Dread, because Judy has a feeling he doesn’t have a clue how to retile a bathroom and she’ll be doing a lot of the work. “Fine,” she concedes with a sigh, because in the end the magenta is really, _really_ ugly. “I’ll fix your shower while I’m there, too.”

 _“Oh,”_ Nick says with dramatic flair, _“How nice it will be to have a big strong bunny around the house.”_

She laughs lightly and goes down another store aisle in search for those fun-shaped gummy candies Nick likes so much. “So what kind of tiles? White? Grey?”

_“Of course not, how boring—it’s going to match the kitchen.”_

“NO,” Judy screams, _actually screams,_ in a grocery store of unsuspecting patrons just trying to buy some goddamn milk or whatever. She smiles sheepishly and ducks her head when a dozen heads or so snap her way, wondering what caused the little bunny cop to finally lose her mind. If only they knew it was because Nick just asked her to deck out a bathroom in the world’s worst assortment of talavera tiles. “Come on, Nick. Not the kitchen tiles.”

_“You will be reimbursed in cash as soon as you arrive. They aren’t very expensive.”_

Her ears droop. He’s made up his mind, and nothing she can say will change it. “How do you expect me to carry 100 tiles to your apartment.”

_“That’s what Finnick and his van are for.”_

“Then why not just skip me and ask Finnick?”

 _“Ha,”_ Nick chortles, _“I couldn’t get Finnick to help me retile my bathroom if I paid him. I think he hates the tiles more than you do.”_

“I wouldn’t be so sure—”

“ _Thanks Carrots, you’re a dream. See you soon.”_

He hangs up just as she opens her mouth for another complaint, and she’s left with an annoying dial tone in her ear. She ends the call and looks up to see people are still staring at her for the outburst, which is really all Nick’s fault, she decides.

And yet she still buys him the stupid candy.

 

* * *

  

Finnick drops her and all the stupid tiles off at Nick’s place. There’s a trolley in the back of his van that he lets her use, but he doesn’t help, just sits in the driver’s side and blasts music. Luckily, Nick comes out and helps her and they manage to get all of the butt-ugly tiles into his apartment without any of Finnick’s help.

“The moose at the hardware store looking at me like I was crazy,” she admits with labored breath as she gets the last box of the tiles through the threshold of his apartment. “I had to ask him to carry all these tiles to Finnick’s van, you know that?”

“Newsflash,” Nick says, “You are crazy.”

She tries to step on his tail, misses, and the whole thing makes him laugh.

Judy finds his apartment is in more or less the same state it was since her last and few visits about two months back: plants in the sunroom, signs on the walls, lamps on the floor and books _everywhere._ He has a new couch, one that’s actually new and not one he picked up on the sidewalk of a suburban neighborhood or left by a dumpster outside Zootopia’s University dorms after the end of the semester. She starts to tiptoe around the lamps before she decides, no, she isn’t going to put up with it, and puts as many of the lamps on one of Nick’s dining tables and the other on the kitchen counters out of the way.

There’s a tarp sticking out of the bathroom and she sees he’s taken the door off its hinges—she makes a mental note not to be bribed into helping him put that back later. She turns the corner into the bathroom and sees that he’s ripped out the sink and tub and replaced them with a normal looking standalone white sink and a giant claw foot tub that puts the weird green one to shame.

“Walls are already painted,” he tells her, and she sees those are a soft and respectable cream color. “Thought this tile on the floor would make it a little livelier.”

With the new fixtures and fresh paint, Judy can admit that the colorful tile floor won’t be _that_ atrocious. Busy, sure, but not a total disaster. “Need me to hook up the shower?” she asks when she notices the appropriate fixtures lying on the bathroom floor.

Nick only spares her a glance as he starts sifting through the all the tiles. “You know how?”

"Uhh, yeah?"

“Then knock yourself out. Thanks, Carrots.”

Judy throws herself into the plumbing; it’s easy enough considering there are a lot of bathrooms back at the burrow to upkeep. Nick still has his record player, but this time he opts for just setting his phone on the counter and playing music from his digital library while they both work.  She finishes quickly, quickly enough to surprise Nick and herself. Although, she reckons that Nick’s only surprised she never had to ask for a step ladder. Jokes on him—the counter was close and plenty high enough.

While the plumbing had seemed to be something Nick wasn’t very familiar with, laying the tile down on the floor _does._ He’s laying the mortar down and combing it like he’s done it a hundred times.

That’s when she realizes that he probably has.

He must see her staring at him from the corner of his eye—that, or he’s a mind reader. “I use to work with a team flipping houses in all sorts of historic districts around Zootopia,” Nick explains as he sets down a tile. “I painted, did basic landscape, and tiled floors.”

“But not plumbing,” she finishes.

“No, but I still know the basics,” he shrugs and a shit-eating grin engulfs his face. Judy rolls her eyes. “I could have done it myself, but you _offered.”_

“You’re insufferable,” Judy gruffs, and Nick’s eyes positively _twinkle._

“Oooh, _insufferable._ Big word, Judith.”

Her cheeks warm. “It was in the crossword this morning…” she says as means of explanation, though she’s not entirely sure why she thinks she owes him one.

“Oh my god,” Nick mumbles, closing his eyes. “You do the morning crossword.”

“Stop.”

“That’s _adorable_ ,” he continues to mumble, eyes closed.

“Quit it.”

Nick laughs and goes back to setting the world’s ugliest tiles on his floor when someone knocks heavily on his door. He leaves Judy and the tiles and scurries out of the bathroom when the knocking on the door gets more and more urgent. “I’m coming!” he shouts and moments later he opens the door and Judy can hear a frantic woman’s voice on the other side.

“Nick!  Please tell me you aren’t about to work a weekend shift.”

“Nope, no work for me.” There’s a small mewling noise that Judy recognizes as a _baby’s_ before Nick’s voice takes a sweet tone and he says, “Hey there, Sunflower. How are we doing today?”

“Good,” a little girl’s voice says.

“Good? Not great? Well, we’ll have to fix that.”

Curious and baffled, Judy sticks her head out of the bathroom door to take a look.

There’s a vixen standing in the threshold, a small girl clinging to her leg and a baby in a sling cuddled against her chest. “I’m so sorry to just ask you this on such short notice but their father is being a little…” she pauses and looks down at the girl before she drops her voice to a whisper and continues, “ _b-i-t-c-h,_ if you catch my drift. He was supposed to watch them but now he’s God knows where and…. I really can’t afford to drop another shift at the hospital so….would you terribly mind watching them?”

“No, not at all,” Nick says, and Judy’s ears perk up in surprise as she watches him take the baby in her arms. “It’ll cost you access to your bathroom, though. I’m currently retiling mine.”

“Done, no problem,” the vixen says. “You’ve got my spare key, help yourself to whatever.” She leans down and drops a kiss on the kit’s head. “Bye, baby. Be a good girl for Nick and, uh, Officer Hopps, right?”

Judy, forgetting she can be seen with her head sticking out the damn bathroom threshold, jumps slightly at the call of her name and jogs out into the foyer with everyone else. “Oh, yes. That’s me. Judy.”

The vixen smiles at her briefly before nudging her daughter gently. “Say hello to Miss Judy, Meredith.”

“Hi,” she says shyly, and Judy just manages to give her a smile before she ducks her head again.

“I gotta go,” the woman says, giving the baby in Nick’s arm a little wave goodbye. “I’m gonna be late. Have fun! Thanks a bunch, Nick.”

“Anytime, Sophie,” and he gives her one last wave goodbye before she rushes out the door and off to work.

Nick adjusts the baby in his arms and takes a few steps over to his kitchen. “Who’s that?” Judy asks because she’s _pretty sure_ Nick isn’t some divorcee with two kids but she kinda learns something new about him every day so she can never be sure.

“Neighbor,” Nick explains as little Meredith follows him with a baby bag Sophie had set on the floor before she hurried out. “Cool lady. Bakes a mean coffee cake and is mega good at giving stitches for free.”

Meredith puts the bag on the counter. “Momma put blueberries in it last time, it was good.”

“In the stitches? Huh. I didn’t notice.”

“No,” Meredith laughs, sounding exasperated with him already in the 7.8 seconds she’s been here. Judy can relate. “In the cake!”

Nick takes out the baby bottle and slams it with dramatic flair on the counter. _“What.”_ He exclaims with wide eyes and Meredith falls into a fit of giggles, paws clasped over her mouth. “And you didn’t bring me a slice!?”

“I tried, but you weren’t home!” Meredith laughs. “So I ate it.”

“Oh,” Nick’s eyes glower and Meredith continues to laugh. “I see how it is. And here I thought we were friends.”

Judy smiles as she watches the kit help Nick fish out the formula for the bottle. “Next time, I’ll bring two slices.”

“You better,” Nick says with fake stern, “Or I’ll put you under arrest for hoarding of delicious baked goods.”

“That’s not a crime,” Meredith says.

“Is so. Ask Officer Hopps, she’ll tell you.”

While Judy might have around 300 brothers and sisters, she’s never been very good at talking to them in the way that Nick is right now. It was all changing diapers, cooking meals, and playing sports until they were tuckered out. She never really stretched or teased their imaginations in such a way, but she tries. “It’s not, it’s…..only a misdemeanor?” she shrugs helplessly.

Nick bursts out laughing while Meredith looks on, confused. “I don’t get it. What’s that?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Nick promises, “It’s just proof that Judy isn’t any fun, despite the fact that she has a million brothers and sisters that might have helped make her otherwise.”

Meredith’s eyes look like they’ll fall out of her head. “A _million?_  That many?”

“No,” Judy rolls her eyes and then tries switching tactics and channeling her inner Nicholas Piberius Wilde. “A million and _one.”_

The kit finally figures out they’re pulling her tail and she laughs before looking up at Nick and tugging on his shirt tail. “Momma fed Ryan a while back. Probably thirty more minutes before he’ll wake up.”

“And the bottle will be all ready when he does.” Nick smiles and offers his hand, palm up, in a low-five. Meredith goes to smack it but Nick pulls it away. “Ah, too slow!” he puts it back out again, she goes to hit it, and again, he pulls his paw away. “Too slow again!”

“Nick!”

“Come on, you’re a fox! Gotta be quick.”

These sorts of games and teasing go on for another few minutes before Nick goes into his bedroom with the baby and returns with a sling he’s made out of a spare sheet, freeing up both hands. “Okay, first thing’s first, you know the drill: did you eat dinner?”

“Yes,” Meredith answers, standing up straight.

“What’d you eat?”

“Potatoes and broccoli.”

A narrowing of eyes. “ _All_ your broccoli?”

Now Meredith looks sheepish. “I ate at least half.”

Nick looks skeptical before he drops the act and shrugs. “Good enough for me. Did you finish your homework?”

“Yes!” she answers proudly. “And!” she runs over to get her backpack and pulls out a piece of paper with a _100_ written at the top and garnished with a glittery gold star. “I got the highest grade on my spelling test!”

Nick lets out a low whistle, trying not to completely wake the baby. “Well, I’ll be: look at you little sunflower. Hot shot on campus! I can’t wait to hear your valedictorian speech one day. This calls for a celebration.”

Meredith looks hopeful. “Ice cream?”

“ _So_ much ice cream.”

“Yes! Thank you, Nick!”

“Ssh, let’s not wake your brother,” he whispers when Ryan stirs against his chest. He yawns, but doesn’t open his eyes. “There’s some in the freezer. Carrots?”

“I got it,” she tells him and goes over to Nick’s freezer to find half a dozen pawsicles in the freezer. She laughs. “You still make these?”

“For personal use, yes,” Nick grins. “Bring ‘em over.”

There are two flavors: blue raspberry and cherry. She grabs two of the red and one of the blue and comes back over. Nick instantly reaches for the red one and Judy hands out the other two for Meredith to choose. “Which one?”

Meredith points to the blue one. “May I have that one please?”

“Of course!” Judy chirps, and hands it over.

Nick’s apartment settles into a comfortable quiet as they all eat their ice cream. Meredith starts to sift through all of Nick’s stuff. Judy hears her ask for the paints, only to let out a whine when he tells her he doesn’t have any right now, but he promised to buy her some for next time. So, Meredith takes to combing through several books, trying to find one easy and interesting enough to captivate her interest. As it turns out, Nick does have some sort of weird organic way of organizing his books (The Wilde Decimal System, as she’ll call it) and blindly directs her to which stacks she’ll want to look through as he gives a waking Ryan a few silly faces in hopes that he’ll laugh, not cry. Judy watches the scene and the whole thing is so _surreal_ that she decides to just bite the pawpsicle in one bite and go back to finishing the tiles in Nick’s bathroom.

“Boooo! Carrots!” Nick calls before can even try to keep to mortar from drying. Ryan squeals at his voice, completely awake now. “We have _company._  Put down the tiles and come read a bedtime story.”

She glances at the time on her phone: _9:23 PM._  It really is later than she had thought. After pocketing the phone she comes back to see Meredith handing Nick the baby his bottle before she curls up on the couch next to him with a book in paw. She looks at Judy with hopeful eyes and asks, “Can you read this?”

“Oh, uh,” Judy falters momentarily. She’s brought back to a few years ago when she still lived in the burrow with her parents and read to her siblings. She never did it often because her older brother Jasper was _way_ better at doing different voices than she was. Doesn’t mean she can’t try though. “Sure,” she says, and climbs on Nick’s sofa.

Meredith immediately snuggles to her side as Judy opens the book and starts with chapter one, immediately recognizing the story as the first of the Hairy Potter stories. The witches and monsters were a fun way to bring in the cool autumn season and Judy finds herself enjoying the story as well, only to jump out of her skin when Nick cuts in to do the booming voice of Uncle Vernon.

The kids laugh, probably more so at the way Judy yelps than Nick’s actual voice, but it’s a nice sound nonetheless. Judy composes herself and snuggles into the couch once more and continues, priding herself when she doesn’t flinch again when Nick cuts in do more voices.

Eventually though, Meredith gets bored as children often do. She starts interrupting with irrelevant questions until the book is abandoned entirely and Nick is ranting about how Meredith has _got_ to be the first fox mayor that Zootopia has ever had.

“That sounds boring,” Meredith huffs. “And hard.”

“Oh, it can’t be that hard,” Nick waves a paw dismissively while his other hand cradles Ryan, who has fallen back asleep. “I, of all foxes, became a police officer. If I can do that, you can be _anything._ Even mayor.”

Meredith shakes her head, smiling. “If you think it’s such a great idea, _you_ be mayor, Nick.”

“Maybe I will.” He looks off into the distance, no doubt imagining the scenario. “My first decree would be free pawpsicles for _everyone.”_

“You can’t do that! Then there’d be no more pawpsicles!”

“You think I’d let that happen? Trust in your mayor, eh?”

“Says the fox who I arrested for tax—“

“Shhh! Not in front of the kids!”

The unfinished insult goes right over the little kit’s head and Meredith sits up straight before she turns her head and looks up to Judy, who is currently trying not to nod off on the sofa. “I’m going to be a writer one day.”

Judy blinks. “Yeah? What kind of books will you write?”

She feels more awake as the little fox kit snuggles back up to her. “All kinds! I’m going to write _tons!_ More books than Nick has!”

“That’s a lot of books,” Judy laughs, and she nods enthusiastically.

Nick hums his approval. “Ooh, I like that idea. That’s a good idea. You’ll be more famous than J.K. Howling in no time.”

Meredith looks up at him, star-struck. “You really think so?”

“Oh yeah,” Nick interrupts. “You’re gonna be the talk of the town. And me and Judy will be first in line to buy every single book. Ooh, ooh!” he chants. “Write your books about _me!”_

“Why you?” Judy asks.

“Why, _Carrots._ I’ve lived a very full life. I’ve done tons of book-worthy things.”

She kinda wants to point out that maybe he shouldn’t be bragging about a hustling lifestyle to a seven year old, Meredith exclaims that, “It’s true! Nick’s done a tone of stuff. One time, he worked for a museum and—“

“Ah, ah, ah, don’t give away trade secrets! Make them read the book to find out.” And just like that, The open door to Nick’s past is once again slammed shut. But she’s used to it by now.

Meredith looks content, content enough to finally fall asleep right against Judy’s side, which is exactly what she does. And as for Judy?

She falls asleep as well.

 

* * *

 

When she wakes up again, it is dawn and the apartment is empty.

It takes her a moment to remember where she is and what has happened; an odd sort of sleep drunk that makes her head heavy and her limbs feel stiff. Her eyes drift around the walls and catch sight of the old street signs, the hanging plants, and all the books. Judy lifts her head and notices that all the kids’ things are gone and Nick’s tie that he hangs by the front door is gone too, meaning he’s stepped out.

With a quick check of her phone and the date, she recalls that no, she isn’t late for work and Nick hasn’t left her as part of some sick prank. She stumbles to her feet and wanders to the bathroom, expecting to use it with hopes of not messing everything up. However, she’s surprised to find that the bathroom is completely tiled.

She peeks her head back out to double check to make sure there really isn’t anyone there, when she spots a note on the door for her. Why he didn’t just text her, she doesn’t know, but she note reads:

_Bathroom’s done, kids went home, and I’ll be back with breakfast by 8_

_-Nick_

_PS: Thanks for the candy, Carrots_

There’s a light pitter pattering on the windows of the sunroom before the rain picks up into a cold autumn shower. Water starts to drip in the bucket that he keeps in the corner and Judy begins to wonder why he’s never fixed his leak in the roof. Maybe she’ll fix it today, before she goes home.

But right now she’s still sleepy and stiff so she resigns to the sit on the couch and finish reading Hairy Potter. She thumbs the pages before she flips back to the beginning and catches an inscription she hadn’t seen yesterday:

_Merry Christmas, Sunflower_

_-Love, Mom_

She decides she’ll _definitely_ fix the leak in his roof, but she wants to finish chapter two first.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm bored, sad, and needed a distraction bc my life is hell lmfao. AGAIN, said I wouldn't write anymore but...here I am....anywAY. It's a weird little story but I don't care??? in case it wasn't clear and my illusions weren't strong enough in this story and Drop in the Bucket:
> 
> 1) Nick watches Sophie's kids and in turn, she would give him medical care back in the day when he couldn't afford it.  
> 2) Nick used to have the paints because one of his past jobs was art forgery. Judy will find out eventually.  
> 3) The books are part of a long-time collection started by his parents and partly from a failed pop-up book store that fell through.  
> 4) Nick's mother called him "sunflower" when he was a kid, which is where he gets the nickname.  
> 5) The apartment was his mother's that they lived in after his father died. He can afford something better, but he's a sentimental fuck.


End file.
